What is OneDrive?

OneDrive is a cloud-based storage option. As a part of Office 365, you are entitled to a OneDrive account. The amount of storage supplied as part of your account is currently 15 GB. There is a free version available to everyone. Your school account is active as long as you are a student in good standing. Upon graduation, you will lose your Office 365 account and your access to the OneDrive account. It is imperative that you download or transfer those files you wish to keep before the account is terminated.

Similar to functionality of Google Drive, if you are used to that. As the school is a Microsoft school, please make use of the Office 365 suite, you paid for it with your tuition.

YES, it is for Macs too.

How to Collaborate with OneDrive

Create the document and save it to OneDrive. The document will live in the cloud. If the document is downloaded and changed, it will no longer be the same as the copy in the cloud. REMEMBER, the document must live in the cloud. The downside of documents living in the cloud is that the major editing tools are not available online.

To make the document available for collaboration, you must share the document. To do that, you click on the three dots (more options).

Here you click "share".

A new dialog box will open and you will then enter in the names or email addresses of those you wish to share with. You will also choose if they "can edit" or "can view". If "can edit" they will be able to change the document. If "can view" they are allowed to view the document.

If the document was saved within a folder, like the folder for all your class work, then the folder must also be set to "share". Sharing a folder does not mean they have access to the entire folder, only the documents that are shared within that folder.

When to allow "can edit" and "can view"

Group projects, whatever the type, can be done within Office 365. One of the great hassles is turning in consistent quality work on group projects. The issue with consistency is that if everyone writes, the project will have many different voices and styles. The solution is to appoint a final editor. When dividing up the tasks, assign one person to be the final editor. The editor's job is to edit the document (spelling and grammar) as well as rewrite the entire document into one consistent voice and style.

At the beginning of the project, the editor creates the document, which will live on their OneDrive account. The editor will add everyone in the group as "can edit". Everyone will work and edit the document online.

At one week, ideally, before the project is due, the editor changes everyone to "can view". The editor then edits the entire document for consistency. It may be a good idea to download the document so that you have access to the entire editing tools. Once done with editing, save it back to the cloud.

At least 4 days before it is due, everyone reads and send suggestions. Editor then adds, subtracts, and makes changes.

With 2 days to go, last draft is taken to writing center for once over.

Last day, the editor makes those changes and is ready to submit final version of project.